With the release of Marvel's latest movie Guardians of the Galaxy, rumours are rife about what this whole new corner of the comic book world means in the bigger picture of other Marvel heroes, namely the Avengers.

There's already been a bit of crossover, as the characters Collector and Thanos have briefly appeared in teaser scenes in other movies. But now that the Guardians have a movie all their own, there's conjecture about everything from a Hulk-in-space adventure to a Guardians versus Avengers epic.

"We inhabit the same universe, and they're pretty big personalities that are likely to, at some point or another, run into each other," said Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn about a movie that crosses over the two teams

"If you go from five characters and add another five characters, that's 10 characters. That can be very difficult," said Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill, aka the Guardians' Star-Lord. "That being said, Marvel knows their stuff! And I can see this opening up doors into brand new worlds."

"We talked about all sorts of possibilities," said Gunn, who also says he knows what the basic plan is but can't say anything. "It could or could not include a couple of Avengers and a couple of Guardians meeting up, or all of the Avengers and all of the Guardians." In other words, anything can happen now.